


Dear Brother

by John_Q_Sample



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Changelings, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Jareth (Labyrinth) Backstory, Origin Story, Original Character(s), Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-03
Updated: 2018-02-03
Packaged: 2019-03-13 02:16:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13560564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Q_Sample/pseuds/John_Q_Sample
Summary: Tabitha Clarke always grew up with her brother Henry, until he left claiming to be Jareth the Goblin King and some man she had never seen before returns as her real brother.





	Dear Brother

**Author's Note:**

> anyone ever noticed the weird mix of aesthetics with jareth? like he wears deep deep v-necks and super tight leggings but then he also covers a lot of his skin, what with the gloves and the capes and stuff.  
> that's not relevant to the story; i just didn't want to make a tunglr post about it

Tabitha Clarke was a woman with straight-cut hair going down to her shoulders. She was serious and tired all at once. In the center of the glitter-coated room, she was staring Jareth down. “My brother.”

Lounging on the throne, he grinned, almost laughing. “I am not your brother.”

“Yes, you are.”

“No, I am not. The man who so gratefully decided to return to your life, allowing me to return to my _own_ home, is your real brother.”

“You expect me to believe that, Henry? That man is wild. He's not my brother. He keeps going on and on about goblins and fairies, and I don’t even know him! The first time I saw him was a _week_ ago, acting like he was my real brother!”

“That's because he _is_ your real brother. He's the Henry Clarke. He's the human.”

“So you’re not?”

She couldn’t believe it. This was Henry, her brother, with whom she had grown up, and now he was just grinning like an idiot and trying to tell her that everything she knew was a lie. And he was utterly convinced that he was correct.

“If that guy is Henry, then why was it you who grew up with me?” Tabitha asked, crossing her arms and squinting at the man.

“Tabitha, think of the stories you used to read,” Jareth said. “I know you still enjoy fantasy. And don’t you know of those tales where a baby is swapped out for a fairy or a goblin or something similar?”

“What, changelings? You’re not a changeling, Henry.”

“Jareth. Henry Clarke came to the goblin city, and I went there as a goblin pretending to be your brother.”

Tabitha frowned. “Usually with changelings you start to tell that they’re not human.”

“How would you explain all the strange things that happened?”

“Nothing—”

“Remember the white owl? Or the strange creatures who appeared, but you always acted as if they were figments of your imagination? Or how everything you wished for seemed to work out on its own”

Tabitha started fidgeting nervously. She chewed on her lip and didn’t look Jareth in the eye.

“And what about these?” He held up his hands. Gloved. “How I always wore these even if it didn’t make sense? You say we were close, but somehow you didn’t notice them.”

“I didn’t want to ask.”

“Didn’t you?”

“Henry.”

“Jareth.”

He stood and walked forward. Tabitha looked up without fear. Now, he was so different from the brotherly figure she had come to love. He wasn’t Henry anymore, but neither was the other one.

“You never wanted to talk about it,” Tabitha explained. “I didn’t want to bother you, so I just let it alone. It’s just gloves. Is it really that big of a deal?”

“Is it?” he said with that same grin.

He held out his hands.

“Oh,” Tabitha whispered.

“Take them off if you’d like. It’s your choice.”

“Henry.”

“Jareth.”

“You’re being weird,” she said.

“Am I?”

“Do you think it’s another fever?” she continued. “Do you remember how sick you always got as a kid? What about that one time your fever was so bad that you started to hallucinate, and you thought there were bugs all over the house? Remember that?”

He did. The memories didn’t die out, and he hated them for it.

“This isn’t a fever. This is real. You’re only making excuses because you’ve been told your whole life that the fairy tales you always read can’t exist.” His smile was stricken with grief. “Remember when you were small, and I was small, and we both believed in magic? We would go out into that park and try to look for fairies until it got dark, and your mother would tell us that we had to go inside.”

“Our mother,” she whispered.

“Yours,” he said. “You grew out of it, and I did not. You always told me that I was too old to believe in fairy stories, and I always said that just because you’re older doesn’t mean you’re all grown up.”

“Like a character in a book,” she added with a faint trace of a smile.

She wanted to cry. To be honest, he did, too.

None of them let it show.

His hands were shaking, still held out. Tabitha gently took them and smiled up at him, and he smiled back, but it wasn’t another one of his fake smiles this time.

She slid the gloves off.

They were not the hands of a human. Tabitha wasn’t sure what to make of them. She opened her mouth, then closed it, then looked up at Jareth with a forced smile.

“Well?” he said.

“Well,” she said.

He held out a hand. She flinched.

“The gloves,” he whispered.

“Oh.” She dropped them into his palm.

“Do you believe me now?” he asked as he slid the gloves back on.

Tabitha hid her relief. “Fine,” she said. “You’re...Jareth, then, yes? The goblin.”

“The goblin.”

“But you still acted as my brother for so many years,” Tabitha said. “And I can’t ever forget that.”

“Your parents are already forgetting it. Their memories are slowly being replaced with Henry. The real Henry, this time.”

“What about me?”

Jareth frowned. “You want your memories to be preserved?”

“I don’t want to forget you. I still consider you a brother...Jareth.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“But I’m not you.”

They stared at each other.

“You have to go,” Jareth said. “Your parents and your Henry will be worried about you.”

“Jareth!”

“Go,” he said.

The wind picked up around her. She shielded her face, and when she looked up, she was back in her home, sitting on the couch like she was that morning.

The Henry Clarke was sitting beside her. He smiled, and Tabitha winced and turned away.

**Author's Note:**

> maybe when i'm done writing the other longer labyrinth fanfiction, i'll start writing something with this.........................this all came from a weird dream i had


End file.
